Lochcarron or House of Edgar

[RosscoP]

Hi All,

I need to order a piece of tartan but have been given the option of Lochcarron or House of Edgar. Apparently there are differences in the shading/colours.

Is anyone able to explain what the differences are? I need to match against a kilt but I'm not going to be able to show the kilt to the seller, so I need as much of an educated guess as possible (dangerous territory I know).

Any advice/info would be really appreciated.

And no, I wont be suing anyone if it doesnt go right!!!

Rossco.

[English Bloke]

The differences depend on the tartan you're after I would think... Order a small swatch of the desired tartan from each mill and judge for yourself. It's the only way I can think of to get the closest match. You can also then use the winning swatch to make a striking cockade for your balmoral or a dazzling hankie for your top pocket.

Lochcarron Swatches

House of Edgar Swatches

Note HoE appear to do two ranges of heavyweight, Clan Heavyweight and Nevis Heavyweight. Not sure what the difference is.

[biblemonkey]

Peter at Reid Kilts did me a solid because I was buying my latest kilt from him and he sent me samples for free. I believe they were from Locharron.

[zirrow]

The Nevis appears to be their newer double-width style, with the tucked selvedge

[Grizzly]

I agree with John (English Bloke) swatches is the definitely the way to go. My own Tartan looks completely different from the two mills. HOE is much more vivid colouring than Locharron but I must stress that this is in my own tartan. It may be the other way round in your tartan. You really need a sample of each to see which one you prefer.

[creagdhubh]

Both, and throw in a wee bit of Dalgliesh!

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Do you know who wove the cloth your current kilt was made from? Is there a label in the kilt?

[MacMillans son]

If you post a close up photo of the kilt fabric here it is possible that one of us will be able to provide some pretty good input about which mill it is. Some yarn colors used are clearly one mill or the other. For instance, in "MacMillan Hunting Modern" the yellow is much more orange in House of Edgar fabric, more true yellow in Lochcarron and more yellow green in Strathmore. Those simple differences can tip the hand of the tartan mill pretty easily in regards to specific tartans.

Of course, nothing is as sure as ordering swatches, as others have said.

Best of luck!

[xman]

The Nevis appears to be their newer double-width style, with the tucked selvedge

Nevis is also teflon coated. I doubt there's much difference between the two HoE fabrics for (what are?) your purposes.

Can you see the kilt? If so then go for the swatches if you have time.

[Paul Henry]

I've got the kilt at the moment because I'm doing a few alterations on it , and I've tracked down the weaver, I thought it was most likely H of E , but I wanted to get a sample just to confirm, sample sitting on top of the apron
Just as an aside it is interesting to see how "out of square" the sett is, not that it really matters, but makes the point well, that not all tartans are precisely square, sample rotated 90'